1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a treatment for stress in livestock, and more particularly to a product and method for successfully drenching rumen animals having symptoms of neurological stress, optimum stress or psychological stress caused by such factors as transportation, weather conditions, nutrient imbalance because of ration changes or geographic changes, and working the animals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The livestock industry of the present day is spread over a vast geographical area, extending literally from coast to coast. Because of this, it is becoming less common to find cattle raising operations and finishing and slaughter processing facilities close to one another. Therefore, transportation of livestock over large distances has become increasingly common. Such transport from one area of the United States to another can often take up to 36 hours, during which time livestock in the vehicle have no way to get water or feed for themselves. This induces great amounts of stress in the livestock.
The net result is that livestock arriving at finishing facilities do so having all degrees of adequate and inadequate nutrition and consequently nutrient levels of the tissues.
Furthermore, this shipping and handling stress comes at a most inopportune time, specifically, during "lot adaptation", the period of least resistance to disease and parasites and the period in the feeding program when the animals are challenged to create an immune response to build immunity to protect them during the remaining feeding period. The end result is that this "lot adaptation" time has the highest incidence of disease and other livestock health problems. There is therefore a need for a livestock treatment product and method which will substantially reduce livestock losses due to problems encountered during this time period.
Additionally, shipping and handling stress can and usually does result in diminished appetite among the transported livestock. As the livestock must eat and drink to replenish lost minerals and energy to successfully combat disease and other such health problems, getting the just-transported livestock to the feed bunk as soon as possible after transport is very important. There is therefore a need for a method and product which will induce livestock to feed as soon as possible following transport. Also, it is important that the livestock replenish the liquids lost during transport, and thus the livestock's thirst must also be stimulated. The quicker the animal recovers from its stress, the quicker the animal may resume feeding and drinking, and thus the animal's susceptibility to disease and parasitical infection may be returned to near-normal levels.
However, merely stimulating the thirst and appetite of the livestock is not always sufficient to prevent the animal from being infected or to reenergize the animal's immune system. For this purpose, there is a need for a treatment product which will replace minerals and vitamins lost by the livestock during transport. However, while the use of both water and fat-soluble vitamins as replacements is fairly well known, it is also understood that replacement of lost minerals by introduction of trace minerals into the livestock is not the most efficient or effective method of replacement of minerals. This is because trace minerals are not easily absorbed by the digestive system of the livestock, in many instances having a bio-availability in the animal's systems of only 15%-20%. However, if instead of trace minerals, amino acid chelated minerals are used, such minerals are absorbed intact via active transportation through the intestine, thus allowing the essential minerals to be used intercellularly as needed in vital metabolic reactions. In many instances, use of an amino acid chelated mineral can increase bio-availability of the mineral to the system of the animal to greater than 90%. There is therefore a need for a treatment product which combines the advantages of vitamin replacement with the absorption advantages of chelated minerals and further includes a stress-reducing element.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and product for reducing neurological stress, optimum stress and/or physiological stress in livestock.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a livestock treatment product which will considerably reduce the length of, and amount of, lot adaptation stress.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a livestock treatment product which includes chelated minerals to quickly and efficiently replace minerals lost by livestock during transport.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of preparing a livestock treatment product including as major ingredients molasses, water, ethyl alcohol and chelated minerals and as minor ingredients, at least a vitamin mix, wherein the method includes the steps of mixing the ethyl alcohol and water separately, then adding each of the other ingredients to the initial mixture and then mixing until homogeneous.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of treating livestock to reduce livestock adaptation stress wherein the method includes the step of administering to livestock a treatment product as described above.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a product for treating livestock which includes ethyl alcohol to reduce stress in livestock.
Finally, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and product for treating stress in livestock which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and is safe, convenient and effective in use.